Suicide prevention leads way for world

A programme is being hailed as an international leader in suicide prevention after halving the number of suicides among the country's most at-risk young people.

New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the developed world, and children involved with Child, Youth and Family (CYF) are 15 times more likely to commit suicide than other New Zealand children, say studies.

Between 1994 and 1999, almost half the 129 children under 17 who killed themselves were in contact with CYF.

But Towards Well-Being, launched in 2002 with the Wellington School of Medicine, has reduced the number of suicides among CYF youths from 15 in the two years before the programme started to just six in the two years since.

And although hospital admissions for "deliberate self-harm" have risen by 25 per cent for non-CYF young people since 2002, they have stayed the same among CYF young people.

CYF chief social worker Craig Smith finds the results encouraging.

He is confident suicide rates among CYF children will remain low, but cautions that a cluster of suicides among a group of young people could throw future results.

Suicide researchers from Oxford University and several Australian universities describe the programme as an "international leader".

Towards Well-Being, which costs the Government about $1 million a year, involves an initial interview with a child using a specific set of questions.

If a suicide risk is detected, a second assessment occurs and a CYF social worker can email or text medical school staff, who will immediately arrange to meet the worker.

Mr Smith said the medical staff had a much more in-depth understanding of suicide risk and could provided independent analysis.

About 1200 children have been referred to the programme and 570 are on it at any time.

- NZPA